WASHINGTON – Protesters against the Gaza war held a “die-in” in front of Lafayette Park and the White House on Thursday as President Joe Biden met with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
O protesters poured red liquid onto the streets, saying it symbolized the blood of those killed in Gaza. They shouted “Arrest Netanyahu” and brought out an effigy of Netanyahu with blood on his hands and wearing an orange jumpsuit. The jumpsuit says: “Wanted for crimes against humanity.”
More than 39,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began in October. Dozens of Israeli hostages remain in Hamas captivity.
On a speech to Congress on Wednesday, Netanyahu defended Israel’s conduct during the war as thousands of protesters gathered near the Capitol, marching through the city’s streets carrying Palestinian flags and calling for Netanyahu’s arrest.
Outside Washington’s Union Station, protesters removed American flags and raised Palestinian flags in their place, to massive applause from the crowd. They graffitied a monument to Christopher Columbus.
In a statement Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, spoke passionately about the protesters’ actions.
“Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric are abhorrent and we should not tolerate them in our nation,” she said. “I condemn the burning of the American flag. This flag is a symbol of our highest ideals as a nation and represents the promise of America. It should never be desecrated like that.”
The number of protesters on Thursday was significantly lower than the day before.
Hazami Barmada, who described herself as a grassroots activist, spoke through a megaphone about Biden’s decision not to see re-election and to pass the baton to Harris.
“Biden did not voluntarily drop out of the race, Joe Biden was kicked out of the race,” she said. “And Kamala Harris still needs to prove her humanity” before gaining the trust of pro-Palestinian voters.
“I will not give you my vote until you show that you share the ideals that the Democratic Party should believe in,” she said.
At one point, a young man with an Israeli flag draped over his shoulders entered the middle of the protest circle and posed for journalists’ cameras as the crowd jeered.
Police worked to keep the two sides separate.
As the police took the man away – he was not detained – Barmada shouted: “See, they even want to occupy our protests. Even our land is not enough!”
As police cleared the way, protesters marched through the city’s streets toward the National Mall.
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